Alright, let's test it right now! Even though everyone was terrified to see the result—and I can understand, because I was too—everyone stared at the orb, while others looked at me frozen, motionless.
But relax, Henray! It's just a test. Better late than never.
"Candidate 325, I called you earlier for a certain reason, not to make the others wait!" shouted the examiner.
Not confident at all, I stepped forward to place my hand on it.
And as if by magic, the orb absorbed my mana. I moved my hand closer. Then, the orb displayed 96,600. Then nothing but zeros. Then nothing at all. In our language, we'd say "it glitched or bugged."
And when I pulled my hand back, the orb exploded, and its fragments scattered into shapes of sixes, nines, and zeros. The examiner, like the others, was traumatized. And I understood why: first, I had destroyed a boxing sack made of Dark Dragon scales, and now I had exceeded the orb's mana measurement limit. It was surprising, to say the least. And also traumatizing.
"Okaaaay, that's scary… but it's fine. After the last three numbers, we will proceed to the final trial: the aptitude trial. This will consist of awakening your skills. It's similar to the first trial, but this time we will examine your skills. You may choose not to reveal them, that's normal," announced the frightened man.
But… how do we know if something is a skill? And how can I ask him without scaring him even more? I'm sure that even if I stay silent, my expression will make him regret letting me pass the first trial. So, let's use another technique.
"Sir, how do we know the strength of a skill?" I asked, through the body of the Duke's son.
"Huh, sir?? How is that possible? But as they say, children are full of surprises! Anyway, it's not strength we talk about, but rank and type. The most powerful are rank SS, while the weakest are rank G (G-F-E–D–C–B–A–S–SS). In fact, there used to be even more ranks, but the demons of old reduced the rankings of human skills.
And to know the rank and type of your skill, you must of course go through the test (for children). For those who have already awakened, by concentrating, they can summon their skill table. In this table, you'll find the skills, and on the left, their rank and type.
There are two main kinds:
– Augmentation skills (increasing stats or human abilities, whether for others or ourselves; some augmentation skills are negative, weakening the enemy).
– Skills linked to types of magic (they designate the type or types of magic).
– And Creation and Destruction skills (granted by the gods of creation and destruction).
As some of you already know, for example, camouflage: even though it uses Wind magic, it's still classified as a skill. And the word "power" is not the same as "skill." It's something else. Powers are either gifts from the Ten Gods or skills so powerful they surpass SS rank. In fact, there's a very small chance that a human may have a god-level or demon-king-level skill. But even if it's overwhelmingly powerful, it remains a skill—or we may call it a power." said the examiner proudly.
To summarize—though I already knew everything he said—you find the rank and type of your skill on the left.
"Now, we will all proceed to the next room, where the Skill Scroll is kept!" announced the tall man.
Then we moved into a hall with stone walls, where the scroll rested. It displayed a spell to seal skills within it and return them into our bodies. Another spell would make the skills appear in our minds, and a final spell would allow us to do it without the scroll, on our own. Complicated work… they really should have merged the spells.
As before, I was called ahead of the others for some reason.
"Your turn, Candidate 325," said the examiner, still terrified.
He really is like a little baby. The age gap is huge. But he's the one who looks the most scared.
And when I began, all I saw was darkness—and then the skill table appeared, with something written on it…